Sunday, April 15, 2007

Healthy Homestyle

We had our Sunday dinner on Saturday so Chase could devote all of Sunday to studying for a big Monday exam. I wanted to fill him up with good food and have plenty of leftovers for him to stay fortified while he studied. Although it was a sunny day, it was 55 degrees and the wind was gusting to 40 mph – a perfect day for staying in the kitchen. Oh, yeh, I cooked up lots of food.

I have never had much luck with “meat” loaves, but this month’s Veg Times featured a recipe, and dgmgv made it and posted her good results on her blog, so I decided to try it. The recipe was actually for sandwiches, but I served mine warm so we could have it plain or as a sandwich. The only diversion from the recipe I made was to leave out the celery because Chase and I both hate it. The loaf turned out great, just as dgmgv described. The taste was excellent and so was the texture - it didn’t fall apart.

Jess posted her lower calorie version of Mac ‘n Cheez from the New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook which I happen to have. That recipe needed some serious fat reduction! I decided to try Jess’s recipe instead of making the usual mashed potatoes and gravy to go with “meat” loaf. I followed her recipe exactly, which allowed for some add-ins, so I went for a texmex version. I added in tomatoes, onions, green chilies, and spinach, and spiced it with chili powder and red pepper. I admit Chase and I hadn’t had mac ‘n cheez in a very long time, but we both thought this recipe was fabulous! Thanks to Jess for sharing her recipe. Here’s a pic without the topping.

I also made a black bean, corn, and red pepper salad.

Roasted veggies – broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, green beans, carrots, mushrooms. It would have been perfect if I had remembered the red bell pepper!

Chase thought cornbread would go well with our homestyle meal, but I told him I was going to try a new recipe from Real Food Daily – Multigrain Quick Bread. Well, it’s not very quick. It has cornmeal, millet, quinoa, oatmeal, and brown rice in it, and I had to prepare the millet, quinoa, and rice the night before so it could be mixed in cold. I baked it for 90 minutes and I’m not sure it was completely cooked. I really did like the bread, but it was unusual. The only liquid in it is apple juice – 3 cups! I used half juice and half cider and it was still very sweet – like a very sweet cornbread. In fact it was so sweet we decided to have it with dessert instead of dinner.

Dessert was to be just fresh fruit – strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, grapes, and pineapple (canned). No sweetener except the pineapple juice from the can.

Oh, yeh, I felt bad about not making the requisite mashed potatoes, so I made sweet potato fries. Here’s my plate and the table.

I bought a pint of vanilla soy dream to have with the fruit salad, and also toasted some almonds and coconut for a topping. Now we had “cake” too, so here’s how we revamped dessert. We pan fried some of the bread in a dry skillet, then plated it.

Put the fruit on top of the cake.

Then added the toasted goodies and a side of ice cream. Of course my camera battery died as soon as I put the ice cream on the plate, so it melted a bit. But oh yum! It was so good we had seconds.

So make the loaf, try the bread, eat your fruits and veggies, and definitely make the mac ‘n cheez!

OKay, wow! I need to start cooking food that looks as good as yours. That bread sounds really interesting, I'd love to try it. Are the grains ground into flour, or whole? And your mac and cheese looks divine, probably because of all the veggies.

oh WOW!This is such a super amazing post Diann!!!! I wish I could have been there too - every single thing looks so enticing and healthy and delicious. I also noticed that meatloaf recipe, and even got out my copy of VT to try it. Maybe tonight?

The texmex mac and "cheese" looks awesome! I have some issues with things that are really "nutritional yeasty" so I am always afraid to try those recipes. I wish I could taste someone elses!

The RFD bread looks and sounds very interesting - and I love how you ad libbed it into a shortcake dessert! Very clever.

I wish Chase good luck on his big exam. All the food looks so yummy. The Mac & Cheez looks absolutely delish. I've had really good luck with recipes from the New Farm cookbook. The fresh fruit looks so refreshing too.

Wonderful food as usual. The cornbread looks really great. Ireally must try it as I am eating too much wheat again so suffering for it.

Dying to have Mac n Cheez but we don't get nutritional yeast here and still waiting for our first Redwoods vegan cheese to arrive. It's in Cape Town but hasn't arrived in Johannesburg yet (the Cape Town people grabbed the lot so we have to wait for the next shipment from England to arrive).Sometimes I feel I live on the moon and not in Africa with all our problems sourcing vegan food.

Hope Chase got on well with his exam! Every meal you prepare is a feast! I am always so jealous! My husband thinks he doesn’t like celery, but I don’t think he realises just how often he eats it hidden in something else….he he he!! Oh, and I forgot to say in my last comment that I voted for you at the Blogger’s Choice Awards!

I was going to say: The one thing I was craving like crazy my first few days on this cleanse was mac n' cheese. Like crazy! I was going to try Jess' version before I started but forgot. I like the idea of a tex mex mac n' cheese, yum!

Diann, everything looks so amazing. So colourful (especially the black bean, corn and red pepper salad! YOWZA!) and healthy. Wow. That is one amazing post filled with things that make me smile! i'm so huge on roasted veggies... i only wish i had the time to do 'em up like you did (even w/out the red bell pepper!)...

Hope Chase did well on the exam...

i love "meat" loaves, which is so funny because i loathed loaves as a kid... yuck! But this is so awesome, what you did here, Diann... i'm not celery's biggest fan either.